


when these open doors were open-ended

by Suicix



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, Break Up, Implied Slash, Introspection, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-29
Updated: 2015-09-29
Packaged: 2018-04-24 00:17:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4897837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suicix/pseuds/Suicix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As he does before anything, Damien has to deliberate over whether or not betraying Cody is going to be a good idea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	when these open doors were open-ended

**Author's Note:**

> in which i get all emo about team rhodes scholars......... man i miss them.
> 
> Title from "Saturday" by Fall Out Boy.

It will only be worth it if he wins.

There’s nothing else to it; there is no reason to do anything that would jeopardise his relationship with Cody unless Damien walks out with that briefcase, his ticket to a world title.

The tag titles seemed to be reasonable enough of a goal to go for, and Cody seemed to be reasonable enough of a partner to go for them with. He’s held the titles before, and with a number of people, too – so it only made sense that he could easily win them with Damien. After all, it’s not like any of Cody’s previous tag partners could ever hope to hold a candle to him. Cody’s admitted it himself, but Damien hardly needed Cody’s declaration to know _that_.

(But somehow, when Cody tells him these things – that he’s wonderful and how much he enjoys teaming with him and how good of a wrestler he is – Damien finds himself glowing and softening, and he never let that get the better of him until he knew he couldn’t deny it any longer.)

They didn’t win the tag titles, though. Team Hell No somehow managed to beat them every time they tried, and Damien doesn’t particularly want to have to mess with the Shield. So that’s it. No belts unless they go for them individually, and Money in the Bank is the perfect way to get one.

Damien’s biggest fear is that Cody could do something drastic. If Damien leaves him, that is. Like the time he took up wearing that mask two years ago, perhaps. He could even go the same way as his brother, could paint up his face in black and gold and never be the same again. It’s that that has Damien conflicted. Even if he does want that briefcase, that world title, he doesn’t want Cody becoming a shell of himself. That would be too painful to watch.

He isn’t this. He isn’t _feelings_ and _emotions_ and letting them get the better of him. He is facts and figures and a long, detailed lecture on why you are _wrong_. (Maybe not if you’re Cody, though. Cody seems to be able to get away without that.)

Damien tries to take his mind off it, but somehow he can’t even think clearly enough to read properly. He ends up hurling his book down to the end of the bed, misjudging the distance and watching it fall to the floor. For a moment he’s horrified at himself because _he threw a book? He threw a book and it wasn’t even some poorly written drivel that might actually somehow be worth throwing?_ but then he can’t quite bring himself to care.

The door to the hotel room clicks open, and obviously with Cody here there’s no way Damien will be able to stop thinking about it.

“Hey,” Cody says, voice soft. Then he frowns. “What was that noise? Just before I opened the door, I heard–”

“Oh,” Damien interrupts – it was probably (definitely) his book hitting the carpet, “it was nothing. Nothing.”

“If you say so.” Cody makes his way over to the bed, eyebrows furrowing again when he sees where the book lies on the ground by the foot of it. He picks it up and sets it down on the bedside table afterwards. “You OK?” he asks, a gentle hand on Damien’s shoulder.

Damien nods, and he knows he can’t go through with it.

 

 

They enter from gorilla together, like always, and Damien tries to make it clear to everyone that despite any cracks that might have been showing, he and Cody are _best friends_ (the crowd doesn’t need to know about the _more_ part of that, and nor does anyone else who’s in the match with them).

 

 

Split second decisions never were Damien’s thing, but _Cody is climbing the ladder_! Cody is climbing the ladder, and there’s nobody around to stop him from doing it, nobody there to push him down so Damien can jump in and snatch the briefcase.

Nobody but Damien himself, that is.

He does it: he pushes Cody off the ladder. The atmosphere tenses; Damien almost feels something that’s a lot like remorse when he catches Cody’s expression, but then he’s pulling down that beautiful blue briefcase and the world has never looked better.

 

 

He loses it. He loses the briefcase, his ticket to glory, and Cena doesn’t even have full use of both his arms.

Shameful is what it is. He’s never felt more humiliated in his life, and there’s been many a time when he’s been embarrassed, mortified. He just learned to hide it under a velvet blue robe and strings of words that nobody understands, but now he doesn’t even wear his robe anymore so he has nowhere to seek shelter. The briefcase turned into his lifeline, and now it’s lost.

Instead he watches from the monitors backstage, watches as Cody’s responsible for pulling the tag belts away from the Shield (but not with Damien), watches Cody and his brother proudly parading around bronze belts and winning matches.

It’s then that he realises: this could have all been avoided.


End file.
